goo’ 

soe 

xo 
TESTIMONIES OF HINDUS 


CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 


BY JAMES L. BARTON, D.D. 
Secretary of A. B.C. F. M. 


American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions 


Congregational House, Boston, Mass. 


1902 


; =) vey eb 
WPA ee € 40 pow 
‘ 30) ’ Titty, * 
“ny apy) ae. 
« ‘a yi 4 vy 
ce (% : a ae 
7 er 
iy ; Yo 


This leaflet can be obtained for free. di 
churches contributing to the American Boa 
cation to C. E. Swett, Congregational H. 
at the offices of the District Secretaries, l 
Building, gth Avenue and 22d St., New 
La Salle St., Chicago. 


sor 
se 


WHAT HINDUS THINK OF CHRISTIAN 
MISSIONS IN INDIA AND CEYLON. 


BY SECRETARY JAMES L. BARTON, D.D. 


Do missionaries awaken animosities 
among the people to whom they go? Are 
they stirrers up of strife? A hundred years 
ago it was thought that this must neces- 
sarily be the case. The East India Com- 
pany and the British government professed 
to believe, and probably did believe, that 
the preaching of the gospel in India would 
arouse the native population and kindle a 
religious warfare which would set the nation 
ablaze, and drive out foreigners from the 
whole land. This conclusion was not un- 
natural, for are not Christian missionaries , 
sent to introduce a religion which can brook 
no rival, and which must oppose the sinful 
and debasing teachings and practices of 
false faiths. Unless the missionary con- 
ceals the object of his mission, or preaches 
an emasculated gospel, must he not make 
enemies everywhere? But what has expe- 
rience shown? 

It is true that those who receive their 
support from the native religions, like the 


3 


priestly classes and the religious mendi- 
cants, are openly and not infrequently 
aggressively hostile to the missionaries. 
But the recent Deputation of the American 
Board to Ceylon and India were gratified 
and not seldom astonished at finding how 
highly the missionaries and the work they 
are doing are esteemed by leading Hindus 
and Mohammedans. ‘These people spoke 
most freely to the Deputation upon this 
subject. On several different occasions 
representatives of the Hindu and Moham- 
medan communities asked the privilege of 
reading an address to the Deputation. In 
some cases they came in numbers to the 
assembly of Christians in their churches 
and school buildings, while in other cases 
they arranged for a meeting of their own, 
inviting us to be present for the purpose of 
receiving the address. 


ADDRESSES FROM HINDUS 


From some of these addresses we make 
quotations here, premising that in no case 
were the writers in any way connected with 
the mission, or looking for favors from the 
mission or from the Deputation. Some of 
them are high officials under the Govern- 
ment, drawing salaries much larger than 
those of the missionaries. We can give 
them full credit for saying what they think 

4 


upon the subjects covered; and we must 
bear in mind that no one of them considers 
himself a Christian. Most of the readers 
of the addresses had the Hindu sacred 
ashes prominently displayed upon their 
foreheads at the time, and nearly all the 
addresses were prepared and presented as 
“from the non-Christian community,” thus 
representing more than the judgment of 
the writer. All but one of the addresses 
here quoted were read from English manu- 
script in the handwriting of the reader, the 
originals of which are now in my posses- 
- sion, There is, of course, not room to 
give the addresses in full, but the passages 
omitted are in full harmony with the spirit 
of what is quoted. 


FROM A BRAHMAN LAWYER 


The first quotation is taken from the 
written address of a Brahman lawyer, who 
spoke for the people of Roha, in the Kon- 
kan, sixty miles south of Bombay. The 
Hindus and Mohammedans there united 
in a service to welcome the Deputation. 
There were other addresses given upon 
this occasion, but we quote from only one. 

“The first and foremost object of all 
Christian missions in India is to preach 
the Gospel, to reveal the true religion of 
God as believed by the Christians to the 


5 


millions in India, and thus to raise them 
from that very low state of religious degra- 
dation to which they are sunk. ... Go 
on educating the natives of India; raise 
them from that very low position of life, 
socially, morally and politically to which 
they are sunk; place before them the sub- 
lime principles of Christianity; convince 
them by sound reasoning and worthy action 
that Christianity is the only religion for the 
world, and then there will be no necessity 
to compel them to accept Christianity, be- 
cause they will do it of themselves. I 
would therefore propose that, something 
more be done in respect of educating the 
natives of India.” 


FROM A DISTRICT GOVERNOR 


The following is an extract from an ad- 
dress delivered by the governor of the 
Sirur section of the Poona District, 150 
miles west of Bombay. The governor, 
with his staff, attended the meeting in the 
church, delivering the address in the pres- 
ence of a church full of Christians, Hindus 
and Mohammedans. 

“The American Board has undertaken 
all this work for the sake of Christian 
charity. The Board has been working 
here for twenty-five years, and the fruits of 
their labors are to be seen in various ways. 


6 


Look at their thriving girls’ school, boys’ 
school, and the Industrial School. They 
have brought among us civilization, and 
brought knowledge within easy access to 
the poor. In all this work we thankfully 
appreciate their broad principles of Chris- 
tian charity and love of knowledge. The 
most noteworthy feature of this charity is 
that it brings civilization and its comforts 
within easy access to the poorest of the 
poor. The present assembly testifies to the 
varied benefits bestowed by the Board upon 
us. We express our gratitude for the good 
work of your Board, and our only prayer to 
the Almighty is that He make your long 
journey pleasant, and give you long life 
and prosperity in your labor of civilization.” 

In the first large assembly held in Cey- 
lon to welcome the Deputation, a large 
number of Sivites were present. During 
the services they obtained permission to 
present an address signed by thirteen of 
their leading men, “on behalf of the Sivite 
community of Chavagacherry.” It was read 
by a prominent official of the town. 

“We thank the American Board for the 
manifold and rich blessings you have be- 
stowed upon us. You have given us the 
inestimable blessing of education, whereby 
the knowledge of the truth in many things 
was imparted to us.... The introduc- 


if 


tion of your European methods of treatment 
(of disease) has taken out of us the belief 
in the charms and mantrams and irrational 
treatment of our own medical men.” 

In Tillipally, Ceylon, the Hindu com- 
munity prepared an entertainment in the 
high school building. The local governor 
presided, and an address was read “on be- 
half of the Sivites of Tillipally.” It is an 
interesting fact that the place of meeting 
was only a stone’s throw from the grave of 
James Richards, one of the young men who 
participated in the famous Haystack prayer 
meeting at Williamstown, and who was one 
of the first missionaries to go out under the 
Board and lay down his life for the cause, 
at the age of thirty-six. The following is 
taken from an address read upon that 
occasion : — 


FROM THE SIVITES OF TILLIPALLY 


“ Although we profess a creed different 
from yours, yet we feel it our duty to ex- 
press to you our sincere conviction regard- 
ing the numerous advantages we non-Chris- 
tians have derived from the work of your 
missionaries in this country. During the 
eight decades since you began work here, 
excellent results have been produced upon 
the people at large. We beg to render the 
Board through you, our heartfelt thanks for 


8 


the blessings of education, culture and civ- . 
ilization that have inevitably attended the 
preaching of the Gospel here.... The 
noble ideals of duty and purity of life which 
have been set before the people of this 
country by the exemplary lives led by your 
missionaries, have elevated our character 
and infused a spirit of charity and gentle- 
ness into many a Sivite home, and the many 
moral precepts from the Scriptures, taught 
us in our Bible classes, have been so well 
impressed upon us that they have been the 
underlying principles of guidance to us in 
matters of our daily life.” 


FROM A BRAHMAN EDITOR 


Soon after our arrival at Madura, a 
Brahman editor asked the privilege of com- 
ing to the mission house and reading an 
address expressive of his appreciation of 
the Christian work done there. Among 
other things he said :— 

“The Madura District has been greatly 
benefited by your mission since its advent 
here, which has been one of the pioneers 
in some secular works, also the lamp of 
knowledge being taken into many dark 
places and millions of human lives being 
saved and led in the path of virtue and 
righteousness, which is highly creditable 
to American philanthropy, unparalleled in 


9 


the annals of mankind. ... The names 
of your missionaries became household 
words in this district by the love and sym- 
pathy they almost invariably bring to bear 
upon every department of their work... . 
A silent and wonderful revolution is taking 
place in Indian minds, and many in India 
are imbued with Christian spirit, and 
breathing Christian thoughts and adopting 
Christian modes of charity, which would 
have been a phenomenon a few years ago. 
I request the American Board through you, 
not to lose heart but to continue its noble 
and self-sacrificing work in the cause of 
humanity. A whole nation, consisting of 
divers sects and creeds, is grateful to it to 
the backbone.” 


FROM THIRTY HINDUS 


At Melur, some twenty-five miles from 
Madura, a leading Hindu official asked the 
privilege of bringing a number of his 
Hindu friends to the missionary’s house to 
meet the Deputation, and to present to 
them an address expressive of their appre- 
ciation of the work already done. Some 
thirty or more came, and an address was 
read by the leader from which the following 
quotation is made: — 

“The first and foremost work done by 
the missionaries is their legitimate work of 


10 


conversion into Christianity. As I follow 
the Hindu religion, you can’t expect me to 
speak on the relative merits of the two 
religions. I can, however, safely assure 
you that, excepting a few bigots here and 
there, the Hindus generally have no antag- 
onism to it. It may, perhaps, sound strange 
to you when I say that many liberal minded 
Hindus sympathize, and at heart desire, 
conversion on a larger scale than has been 
effected now. The reason for it is the 
constitution of the Hindu religion, which 
denies to the lower castes the right to enter 
the temples. They labor under disadvan- 
tages which it is not possible to remove 
from inside. All social reformers and lib- 
eral minded people regret their inability to 
do any practical good, and welcome the 
help coming to them from embracing 
Christianity. The contempt with which 
the higher classes treat the lower, it may 
not be possible for you to conceive... 

such is the bane of caste and the curse of 
India, and there seems to be no prospect 
of deliverance from it (from within). 
Therefore the work done by your mis- 
sionaries is no antagonism to Hinduism in 
the eyes of any from this standpoint, but 
welcome help in regenerating the fallen 
classes. ... Besides the secular educa- 
tion given in the (mission) schools, the 


11 


moral education imparted there is of incal- 
culable benefit. Female education owes 
its success entirely to your interest, and 
the confidence with which little girls and 
grown up girls are sent to your schools is 
itself a sufficient testimony to the good 
work done. 

“The third branch of work is the part 
your agency takes in quasi-official adminis- 
tration and public movements of the coun- 
try as residents and citizens of India. I 
refer to the work done by them and their 
subordinate staff as members of district 
and ¢aluk (town) boards, etc. In addition 
to the actual and substantial work done by 
them as such, the moral influence and ex- 
ample set by them to my countrymen, who 
are just beginning to exercise local self- 
government, is invaluable. The last and 
most important of the work done by the 
missionaries is the elevation of the moral 
tone and sense of duty, imbibed in the 
midst of my countrymen by free intercourse 
and friendship with them. The mission- 
aries are easily accessible to all, and are 
freely consulted in all matters, even on 
domestic affairs, by Hindus. Such contact 
benefits both parties, and especially the 
latter. The general impression was, and 
is, that the fact of a man being a Christian 
was a guarantee to his truth-speaking and 

12 


good conduct. The teaching in the schools, 
public preaching and private contact with 
our revered missionaries, go a great way 
towards moulding the character of my 
countrymen. In brief, gentlemen, the work 
done by your mission is of incalculable 
benefit to India, and it cannot be suff- 
ciently thankful to your kind-hearted coun- 
trymen. What we want and pray for is 
more extended work.” 

Long conversation followed the reading 
of this address, when the various points 
were reiterated and emphasized. 


FROM A PROMINENT HINDU JUDGE 


The last quotation I will make is from 
an address delivered in the presence of a 
large Christian congregation and a few 
Hindus by one of the highest Hindu gov- 
ernment officials in southern India. The 
address was prepared and read by Judge 
Varada Rao Avergal, of Madura, court 
being suspended for the time in order that 
he might render this service, and give pub- 
lic expression to his appreciation of the 
Christian work done in the Madura Dis- 
trict. We quote but a small part of the 
address of the judge. 

“The work of the mission may be con- 
sidered in two aspects, viz., the Secular 
and the Evangelistic. It is not too much 

13 


to say that as regards the Secular branch 
of its work, primary education, the educa- 
tion of girls and of the lower classes and 
the training of boys and girls for the work 
of tuition is largely, if not mainly, carried 
out by the American Mission. This duty, 
be it the legitimate function of the state or 
of the educated classes of the Hindu com- 
munity, has been considerably neglected. 
Whenever I am transferred on official duty 
to a new district, it is with a feeling of 
relief that I hear that the missionary is at 
work in this special field of labor. We 
Hindus are not so blind or bigoted as not 
to recognize the manifold good results flow- 
ing from the adoption of the Christian faith 
by some of the communities who form the 
population of southern India. In 1886- 
1887 I had occasion to speak of the material 
and moral advantages which a large portion 
of the adjoining district of Tinnevelly had 
derived from the adoption of the Christian 
' faith soon after the great triennial famines 
of 1876-1877 and 1878. My official expe- 
rience of over fifteen years has tended to 
confirm the opinion which I had formed 
upon actual observation in the Tinnevelly 
district. As a citizen in his relation to the 
state, and as a fellow subject in his rela- 
tion to his neighbors, the Hindu, if he has 
adopted the. Christian faith, has won the 


14 


approbation of the ruling class and the 
love and esteem of his fellow-subjects. In 
his manner of domestic life, in the rules 
of conduct which he prescribed to himself 
for observance in society, in the ideals that 
he sets himself to realize, he is a conspicu- 
ous example to his confrere, who has not 
followed him in his change of faith. So in 
the material and physical advantages sur- 
rounding him, we find his aims are higher 
and better conceived than those of his 
neighbors. . 

“As far as I am able to gauge, the 
attitude of the cultured and refined Hindu 
gentlemen towards the Christian faith and 
its professors is one of profound respect. 
He is anxious to be taught and enlightened. 
He admires the spirituality and the soul- 
lifting character of Christ’s teachings. . . . 

‘There is, further, the medical branch 
of our work which appeals most strongly 
to the emotional side of our nature. That 
work has evoked much practical sympathy 
and cooperation: It is impossible in this 
connection to forget Dr. Van Allen’s indi- 
viduality, who by his almost unaided effort 
has accomplished a work which is seldom 
attempted with success without official 
cooperation at its back. ‘These are results 
of which even the most pessimistic may be 
proud.... In the furtherance of this 


15 


common aim, we are all as one, and are 
fellow-workers. Each can give its sound 
of encouragement, and it is with that feel- 
ing that I, this evening, venture to think 
that the Hindu community of Madura 
wishes you Godspeed in your labors.” 


Nearly all, if not all, of the writers of 
the documents from which quotations have 
been here taken bear university degrees, 
and are recognized leaders among the Hin- 
dus. The quotations made above constitute 
but a small portion of the addresses from 
which they are taken. Other addresses 
were made to the Deputation from which 
similar quotations might be taken, and 
numberless private conversations with Hindu 
gentlemen were confirmatory of the conclu- 
‘sion that the enlightened Hindus are care- 
fully observing the work of Christian mis- 
sions, and that they recognize its value, and 
honor the missionaries who are doing it. 
These addresses show some of the influence 
and results of mission work not represented 
by tables and statistics. ‘These mark the 
movement of the thought and life of India. 


16 


